* At the 45:45 mark of this Chicago Sun-Times video, Gov. Bruce Rauner was asked if he was troubled by the fact that the three leading people who are running for governor right now (including Rauner himself) “could only do so because they are extremely wealthy.”
“I believe we got outspent in my race. We got outspent in my race.”
Um, what?
* I checked with the folks over at the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, who sent me a spreadsheet. Click here.
ICPR totaled up all money spent by both major party 2014 gubernatorial candidates and also by outside groups. It came up with $42,007,560 spent by or on behalf of Pat Quinn and $65,432,067 by or on behalf of Bruce Rauner.
When asked if he supported term limits, Kennedy said, “I think that it’s really important that people have faith in their government, and they don’t have that now. They want term limits wildly in order to restore that faith; and if that’s the price of getting people to believe in government, then I would embrace term limits.”
With that answer we asked him about the longest serving House Speaker in the country: Michael Madigan. We asked Kennedy if after more than 28 years as House Speaker was it time for a change in leadership?
“Every year he’s up. Let’s say every session he needs to earn the support of his members,” said Kennedy. “I think that’s between him and his members. I think the issues in this state are firmly on the governor’s shoulders. I don’t think the speaker or the legislature is the root of all evil. I think the governor’s refusal to negotiate a budget is.”
*** UPDATE *** No need to edit this mess. From the WREX interview as posted by the ILGOP…
We’ve covered politics a long time, and all’s fair in … well, mostly war. But interestingly — and disappointingly — Kennedy pretty much took a pass on critiquing the performance of House Speaker Michael Madigan, though specifically asked.
Indeed, it’s not the Republican right but the Democratic left controlling the Legislature that has overseen the loss of people, jobs and investment and the erosion of services for the most vulnerable in Illinois. Democrats are responsible for drawing the maps and the gerrymanding that has guaranteed most races in Illinois now go uncontested. It’s Madigan himself who steadfastly has blocked redistricting reform. Arguably it takes an especially willful brand of denial to overlook Madigan’s contribution not just the last two but the last 30 years to putting Illinois at the bottom of the nation’s barrel.
If we may offer some unsolicited advice to Kennedy, to J.B. Pritzker who is reported to be mulling a bid, to any other Democrat who aspires to be governor: You’d be hard-pressed to find a politician more unpopular than Madigan in these parts, and in Illinois that’s saying something. There’s a reason the vast majority of counties in Illinois outside Cook have gone red in a lot of these statewide and national races.
We get the reluctance of Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls to cross the chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, among the conflicts the Speaker has. We’d just say that real leadership requires courage, which includes standing up to someone who’s been around too long and has gained too much power, to this state’s ongoing detriment.
* OK, now on to Bob Daiber, who announced his campaign in Edwardsville yesterday. I happened to be in town anyway, so I went to the event and asked a few questions…
MILLER: Do you think that the speaker should be negotiating non-budget items as part of a package?
DAIBER: Well, I don’t, I don’t, I think that’s the big hangup right now with the governor. I think most of the governor’s items that he has on the table he says he won’t pass a budget ’til he has these other reforms. So, um, I think the issue at stake in drafting a budget has to be budgetary items, not items that are not directly related to the line items.
MILLER: But they are doing that in the Senate. Do you support that?
DAIBER: Yes, I do.
MILLER: Do you support the plan?
DAIBER: Well, there are certain parts of what the Senate, I don’t agree with 100 percent of it, OK? But I agree with their compromise and the collaboration because they’re trying to move the state forward. So, I’m not gonna oppose any effort to get a budget because we need one so bad.
